pink flowers
by aikotters
Summary: Ochako has a single year to get to the top of and create the sigil of her family's god, Shaymin, all while raising said god from an egg. Along the way, she meets rival Izuku, best friend Iida, and the exuberant coordinator Ashido Mina who always seems to know when to arrive. Thanks to nini for the art!
1. Chapter 1

_Warnings: Ursaring attack_

* * *

_Chapter One - Face Forward_

Uraraka Ochako, fifteen years old, casual trainer, was now running for her life through the Eterna Forest, an angry ursaring at her heels.

About two weeks ago, her plan had been to take her time down the winding roads in Floraoma, head back to Canalave, and take the cheapest boat she could to Kalos. Foreign trainers were desperately needed in Kalos after the incident in Geosenge, which had been one of the biggest tourist traps since the Goldenrod Game Corner. Everyone had wanted to look at the mysterious stone statue carved into the middle of the town like a beautiful flower.

That flower was now revealed to have been a beautiful weapon, but that was beside the point. Why was Ochako fleeing an angry ursaring instead of making money in Kalos?

That would be because family tradition demanded it.

* * *

Uraraka Ochako of Floraoma knew all of three things, she had to raise a shaymin to be an Uraraka, she really wanted a turtwig, and that honey from the meadows tasted better than beehives from the forest.

She had spent her childhood summers without shoes and some of her winters the same. She had patchy sweaters until she was twelve years old and frayed pants that she sometimes tripped on. Her hair was meant for kitchen scissors and she had to practice the precision in every single syllable. Otherwise, people would laugh like they weren't the same.

The town of flowers was as cutthroat as vines and you fought very hard not to be poisoned.

The value of a poke was good everywhere, and every single one Ochako could snatch she took and hoarded. Her parents knew nothing! (They knew everything) And with the value of each she could only imagine the value of raising a pokemon.

Thank goodness Professor Aizawa handed them out for free every three months. Otherwise she'd be stuck with her sweet little cleffa, who while a good tank, was also a baby.

Unfortunately, three days before she was scheduled to get that boat ticket and get out of town, her mother had stopped her at the door and thrust what at first glance had looked like a wad of light clay and a very oddly colored leaf stone into her hands.

All Ochako had managed to say was "What?" before her mother had sat her down on their beaten up couch and handed her a green egg dotted in pink flowers. It was smaller than most pokemon eggs, and she had seen a lot from her uncle's construction breeding service.

"This is a Shaymin egg," she said, voice serious and firm.

Ochako, as anyone else would do when faced with the egg of a legendary, froze and meeped like a frightened mareep.

She was later glad that she hadn't dropped it.

"Yes I know." Her father at least looked amused. "Imagine my face when that popped out of yer mum's hair."

She could only imagine. A green hedgehog sitting as casually as can be in a random girl's hair. That just asked for some pain and suffering, if not some humiliation.

"It's a family tradition," her mother continued, her hands trembling a little. Ochako twitched to hold them down, to rub the knuckles with her thumb like her dad did. But the rest of her was so stuck on the idea of raising a _shaymin_, the guardian of Floraoma, with her bare hands. "To raise one and have it blessed on Mt. Coronet where Arceus once made covenant with the humans. Then they will bless the Shaymin and they'll be able to change forms at will. And you can release them."

Ochako could only stare at her mother, wide-eyed. After a few moments of her jaw dropped open, gaping like a fish. "But… what about Kalos? The Elite League is there! Pro-Professor Yagi asked for me!" She tried not to let the notes of accusation slip into her face. It wasn't really her mother's fault. This was _tradition_, after all and she had, in some sense, been aware she would have to go to Mt. Coronet eventually.

Her mother almost seemed to wring her hands. Almost. Her parents were too tough for that. "He's willing to compromise. Since you're not interested in the league here, as long as you complete the trial of getting Shaymin up the mountain before your visa expires, he's willing to meet you and take you to Kalos from there."

Ochako, thankfully, did not laugh. She didn't cry either. But she got very close to both.

* * *

Granted that little flashback didn't entirely explain why she was running from an angry ursaring, but did you really want to know the long and entertaining backstory of the many ways her cleffa irritated a teddiursa? Yes? No? Oh well.

Ochako had never been so proud of running errands for her parents as she was right now. Even holding the errant cleffa wasn't slowing her down.

Behind her came the telltale sound of a tree ripped down the middle. Ochako muffled a squeak as she bolted into another thicket.

Almost there, almost- there!

Triumph rang in her ears as she reached a boulder that nearly outdid her in height and definitely did in width. She reached into her pocket and pulled out another ball. Releasing them, she caught the pokemon in her arms and winced. Turtwig were pretty heavy. She lifted him up to rest his feet on the mossy top of the rock.

"Ok Trevor," she said, trying to hide the waver in her voice. "Get ready to use razor leaf."

"Turt," he said, yawning a little. But at the sound of the heavy footsteps trembled the leaves, he sobered and ducked his head. The tiny leaf on his head started to grow.

Eterna Forest had been Ochako's playground for years. She knew so many of the tree patterns, the pokemon habitats, the seasonal occurrences by heart, that she knew spring was the time of year that the native eevee pack left their eggs near her. This was the mossy rock known for blessing eevee with power.

It was also the one place no one dared to hunt a grass type, because the mossy rock tended to turn a fragile grass type into victreebel levels of deadly.

Ochako hoped it would work now.

"Trevor!" she called. "Razor Leaf!"

The leaves on the turtle's head grew at once, fueled to twice their size, then three times. Trevor rolled his head just so and the shining leaves flew off of his head and cut into the Ursaring's chest deep. They were a bit slow, but now was not the time to try and learn the ultra-strong, ultra fast single razor leaf some kid from Twinleaf had perfected. They still caused blood and the great monster to stumble back. And that was all she needed. Just a bit further!

"Two more, c'mon Trevor!"

The grass turtle let out a merping sound and obeyed two more times, sending the angry ursaring into a heavy oak. It wasn't enough to knock it out or bury the tree, but Ochako was already gone, around the rock with Trevor's ball and the opposite way she had ran for it. Past the Old Chateau, past the healing station, almost to the exit-

Then her foot gave out.

She toppled over and crashed into the ground. The egg bounced against her back, miraculously unharmed and her ears filled with the sound of roaring and thumping and crashes a short distance away. Ochako forced herself to try and stand up, her ankle dragging as she lifted it. She wobbled forward. Even a few centimeters and she would be closer to safety, to freedom. Most pokemon stayed in their habitats. Humans had made sure of tha- ow.

She toppled to the ground again and dragged herself forward by her arms. She was not going to die in this forest, oh god she might, by god she mi-

"Pinkie, poison jab!"

Her vision flooded with purple and then cleared again.

Well, somewhat. Now she was surrounded in pink, barring the bright amber eyes blinking down at her. "Are you okay?"

_Her face is too close. _She pulled herself up a little and grimaced. "I'm okay," Ochako managed to wheeze. "It's just my ankle."

The girl knelt and as she moved, Ochako's eyes widened further. Even her _skin _was pink. How was that possible? Her arms went to Ochako's armpits and heaved her up all at once, one arm over her shoulder. "Then you're not okay," she declared. Ochako felt the shaking in her arms and tried to help. Her good foot steadied. "Pinkie come on we've gotta go!"

The thing that had attacked floated over to her with a little snicker. It looked… well it looked like those storybook pictures of aliens.

"We gotta move fast, okay?" Ochako felt a tremble going all up and down her body. This person must be terrified.

Ochako grit her teeth. "Okay… together!"

They moved in quick unison, their faces red with effort. "Almost there," wheezed the girl.

Each step made Ochako's foot burn with pain. "Little more," she agreed.

And then they were out, slumping against the nearest tree furthest from the forest. "We did it," breathed the pink girl. "Nice going."

Ochako managed to grin, despite the near death of an ursarin just behind her. "You too… I'm Ochako."

Pink girl's lips widened to a smile as big as her head. "I'm Mina. Nice to meet you."

"Same… You saved my life."

"Just a little."

They laughed, and then it hurt to laugh. But that was okay.

That was the first meeting of Uraraka Ochako and Ashido Mina.

* * *

_**A/N:** _And this ends chapter one! For context, this takes place before Assortment of Pebbles, but in the same universe. It's roughly a year before. That said, please enjoy and give me tips for writing Mina! I'm not quite sure I'm getting her right!

For the poke no hero bb. And thanks go to nini for the cover art!


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two - The Gym of Flora_

There were two keys to hatching a shaymin as a human trainer: you needed lots of flowers, and you need to be grateful to god's green earth and those who walked upon it. And the best way to do both was to study up as a gardener.

Hence why, three days after first meeting Ashido Mina, and five days after being told she had to get to as soon as possible, Ochako stood and stared up at the Eterna City Gym.

"Well," she said with a tiny exasperated sigh. "At least it's not a giant turtwig made of plants." Apparently that had been the design Gardenia had wanted for it at first, but the entire association had shut down the remodeling plan. It had apparently been much too expensive and was such an unfair advantage to the grass leader it would cause a league downturn. No one wanted to admit a grass trainer had wrecked their lives because there were so many weaknesses to using it.

As far as Ochako was concerned, the people who thought that were just ashamed they lost, and they were a bunch of ruddy cowards all the same.

She entered the gym and her vision _filled _with green. Leaves and shrubbery, spared only by the color of flower petals and spiraling pollen centers. There were girls and boys all over. Most were battling, flames dancing with leaves or snow falling too slow to be any use. It was blown away within seconds. There were even a few birds going in for a snack made of grass types. Thankfully that was stopped.

There was, however, no sign of the gym leader, which was never a good sign. Gardenia usually was, if not live and in concert, at least easy to access or contact. The only exception was fall in Eterna Forest, which was the time she made sure all the small pokemon were safe from harm and that every hibernating creature could in peace. Helping out there was the only way to get a free badge without a battle in the area.

People frowned on that of course but Ochako didn't care. She didn't have the time for badges anyway. She was here for hatching an egg and training. Badges were only so important to so many.

"She'll be back in an hour," someone called to her.

And she was back in an hour. And two hours later, that was the beginning of the longest three weeks of Ochako's life.

* * *

Mina had heard a lot of screaming from the Eterna City Gym over the past few days. Not death screaming, so she didn't worry.

Her home didn't have gyms so she had no clue if that was normal or not. She didn't have much interest in gyms. Too much like home, too much like hunting and living. But it was no Alola either. She had liked Alola, of course but they were too free-spirited. She would leave the happy fun confusing times to Zossie to decipher. She had much more that she wanted to explore.

Unfortunately for her, the contest hall did not appear to be in this city, and that meant unless she could get a bike, it would be a little while before she could get to Hearthome or Floraoma. She did want new pokemon, true, but she wanted the rarest, the best. The least suited. The ones meant for true adventure!

The ones that would test if she had courage in the end.

So, with reluctance, she summoned some poke and paid for a bicycle. She knew the pokemon that she wanted. She wanted something _tough_. Because there were different contest categories or something right? She hadn't joined them when she'd breezed past Hoenn, they were too loud for even here. Starting in Sinnoh seemed the best.

Besides, she wasn't sure she could use Pinkie in contests. He was pretty unknown. He used similar moves to pokemon here but still. She didn't want to risk it. If they took Pinkie away… she'd cause a ruckus, that was for sure.

Mina walked the bike, wincing as the pedals smacked into her shins. Ugh how did people do this? Alola just used Tauros. She looked around. There had to be an empty alley or something where she could practice biking without hitting anyone. Maybe she could use the route outside the forest? She'd just have to be careful not to go in yet. There were big official posters about that ursaring she and that girl had run into. They weren't supposed to be this riled up. Was something going on in there?

Another bump, this time close to her knee and she grimaced. She was tempted to hurl this thing into the nearest wall… but that was throwing away money she definitely couldn't replicate.

"Uhm…" a girl cleared her throat. "Do you, uhm, need some help?"

Pride brought Mina to almost, _almost_ grumble out a no, but her aching shins shoved her pride away with both hands and feet. "That'd be great," she said, turning around. The faint smile tugging her lips widened into genuine delight. "Oh it's the girl from the ursaring. You don't look too good!"

She didn't either. Her brown waves of hair were tattered and clipped in awkward angles. There were bags under her eyes and though her skin now had a nice tan, she was drooping where she stood. Mina knew enough about earth to know that was not a good thing.

"Maybe I should be helping you," she teased. "Uraraka, right?"

"And you're… Ashido?" The girl managed a smile, bringing a little bit of color back to her eyes. "I thought you would have left by now!"

"I wanted to but I've never ridden a bike before." There was no point in lying about that part, that was for sure, anyone could figure that out about her with ease. "I lived in Alola until now and no one rides bikes out there, they prefer Ride Tauros and Stoutland." It wasn't a real lie. She technically had lived in Alola.

Uraraka smiled all the wider. "Oh… that's a lot of fun isn't it? I can definitely show you that. It's easier than attempting it by yourself." her bag sagged on her shoulders, ruining the cheer in her voice.

"It is?" That was interesting.

Uraraka nodded, seemingly unaware of the implication that Mina had never seen a bike until today. "Yeah if you're not used to keeping your balance you'll fall and since people usually do it on the sidewalk well…"

Mina could almost feel the impact, shaking her skin and tearing cuts and blood. And as far as she knew, they put little kids on these contraptions for them to master. No wonder it was so important. Children were so strong in this world. The ones in hers would love it.

Uraraka led her to an empty alley. Aha! They were around. They were just so hard to find. She set her bag down gently, then glanced over Mina.

"You have to guide the bike a little further away, or you'll be all bruised up," she said. Mina made a face. It sure would have been nice to know that earlier.

"Huh!" was all she said instead, swinging one leg over the contraption. With a few tries, she managed to get her foot onto the pedal, leaving her other foot wiggling uselessly in the air. The bike wobbled, teetering from one side to the other. Then it wasn't moving, steadied by two firm hands and some metal thing Mina had missed earlier.

Oh, the kickstand, right.

Mina settled the other foot on the pedal, accidentally kicking it back up anyway. "Well what was the point of that?"

Uraraka laughed and something eased out of Mina's shoulders as she placed them on the strange handlebars. What was that gear thing on it? Finally she had laughed though! Something normal! "It's usually up before you get on the bike. We'll know for next time."

We and next time. Zossie had said the people here were really friendly and supportive but her friend had named it as the spirit of Alola. She seemed to be completely off there. "Nice!" She frowned. "Now what?"

"Push down on the pedals," Uraraka instructed. "Don't worry, I'll be with you from behind for the first bit. You just gotta keep pushing on them."

Mina obeyed. Slowly of course. It was hard to push just enough to keep going and shove her legs down and up. She stalled twice.

Before she knew it, she was at the other side of the alley.

"Turn!" Uraraka called. "Use the bars!"

Her voice was very far away. Mina turned her head instead to look at her to find out why and-

Thud.

She had crashed into the wall.

Uraraka's uncontrollable giggling through her gasp of shock made Mina's face burn. "I deserved that," she muttered, scraping herself up from the asphalt. "I really, really deserved that."

"It's okay," Uraraka controlled her laughter as she made it to her. "If you don't get your knees shredded at least once while you're learning, you must not be trying very hard."

"That so?" Mina beamed. "I'm gonna keep that in mind then."

Uraraka giggled. "Well, if you say so." She leaned down. "Let's patch you up and try again, okay?"

And so they did. Three hours later, and Mina could confidently turn and ride and stop enough to leave the alley. It took a lot of bandaids.

"Phew! I feel better about Cycling Road now." Mina wiped her brow and pulled her hair down from its fluffy mass. It had only gotten worse with exercise. "Thanks so much!"

"You're welcome!" Uraraka had made them go all the way to the park with Mina on the bike, just so the girl could prove that she could. Now they sat with their pokemon eating sandwiches and having an enjoyable meal. "It's something you shouldn't do by yourself."

"That seems so!"

It could have ended like that, two girls eating and having a good time.

Instead, Uraraka's bag had to glow and ruin it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - The Flower Girl

"Ooh!" The excited sound of the girl beside her nearly ruined all of Ochako's precarious hold on sanity. In fact, she jumped about two feet in the air and nearly dropped the cracking egg and her bag and that would not have ended well. Thankfully, that galled her into action and she stumbled towards the grass of the park. Shade, she needed shade. A tree. Something. Somewhere. Somewhere it wouldn't be obvious, somewhere she could hide the legendary baby. Keep it safe.

"Your child is being born!" declared the girl, more pleased as punch than dutifully concerned. The statement was just loud enough for people to turn their heads and just ridiculous enough for Ochako to laugh.

"Egg's hatching, that's all."

Mina grinned. "I don't get how that makes me wrong."

Ochako had to hide her smile. She had her there. "Your way was much more awkward."

"Fair enough." By now, Ochako had settled, reluctantly, in a semi sunny place where no one seemed to be looking, the egg glowing a little dimmer now. She could at least look at it now. The glow settled to a warmth by her hands, a steady pulse almost like a heartbeat.

"Will it take long to hatch?"

Ochako racked her brain for the answer, for her mother's desperate instructions warped by tears and love.

"I think we've got a little while. They're really fragile when they first hatch. All babies are really but this Pokemon never quite becomes the best at taking a hit until they're a few years old."

"Soo…?"

"So about three hours until they manage to nose their way out of there. And then I've gotta handle it carefully. With bare hands."

"That should be gross." Mina had propped her bag open and her Pokemon had taken it upon themselves to pop out of their ball. Said Pinkie flopped on Ochako's head before Mina could snatch her up.

"Sorry, he's dumb. He listened to Mineta too much."

Mina watched her new friend's face shutter with concern. Hence why she added. "Nah, you don't want to know. Trust me. I didn't want to know."

She took that. And Mina thanked God that Mineta had not come along now more than ever.

"It's a long story."

"Fair."

And they sat quietly for a few hours. Ochako's hands rubbed the egg as they sat. And it was quiet. It was a good quiet.

"You don't have to stay," Ochako said at one point. Her head was bowed in the heat and she was fumbling through her bag as she waited. She wiped her brow, brushing her two filled pokeballs with soothing fingertips.

"I want to stick around anyway." Mina laid back on the grass, rolling in the sun like she was just sunbathing and not risking sunburn. But then, her skin was a way different pigment from anyone else's Ochako'd seen in her life. Maybe she couldn't get sunburn. But it'd be super rude to ask. So she didn't.

* * *

It took a lot to distract Midoriya Izuku from his note taking. From his studies. People tended to work very hard to do it and as such he was often having to squirrel away when the opportunity arose so he did not get well meaning interruptions.

It was why he was sitting under a tree, scribbling furiously in preparation for his exams, when he saw the light gently beaming from the side. And that wasn't how light worked, he had just studied this last night. Which meant that this wasn't a light from above, or even the sun's natural rays. This was different.

It was likely the energy emissions of an egg. A hatching egg. And it was probably a super strong hatchling.

His curiosity overwhelmed his good sense telling him that it wasn't his business, and Midoriya Izuku rose to look. And so he made his way through the park, towards the light (and Kacchan would clip his head for that, gentler than he used to be, gentler than Izuku had ever thought possible of the arrogant bastard who did, well a lot of things.).

He reached two girls, a pink one and a bubbly one, who was shifting every few moments like the world would turn upside down if she looked away, her cheeks round and full of patchwork emotion. The pink one was a lot of spread limbs, splayed on the grass and staring at him with golden irises.

"We've got an audience!" she crowed at Izuku, who jumped a solid foot in the air. The other turned, blinking once.

"Oh!" she smiled, but it was a little fainter, a little wary. "Sorry, this guy must be brighter than we thought." she didn't move away from the egg, her eyes wary and thoughtful all at once.

Izuku raised his hands, notebook still clenched tightly in his left. "I'm sorry, I'm usually more absorbed in my work. It's just when I get curious… well…" He trailed off, mumbling for words to explain himself.

The pink girl waved her hand. "Nah it's okay, the more shields the merrier right, Uraraka?"

The other girl paused, and then she beamed, downright irrepressible. "Yeah, you're right!"

They introduced themselves and slowly Izuku watched Uraraka-san's shoulders ease up. As he sat down in the grass, she asked, "What are you studying for?"

Izuku glanced down at his notebook. "Oh, I'm applying for the early Indigo University Accolades program… If I get a region's tokens I'll be able to go in for free."

"Tokens?" Mina sat up, tilting her head and calling Pinkie back from where he'd tried to hide himself in a tree away from Izuku's excitable five minutes of observations. "Like the Z-Crystals?"

"Yeah!" Izuku smiled, carelessly and gently and Ochako made herself not look at it as much as she could. "Eight badges from a region would be enough. I've gotten two already, but I need to take my time. If it takes less than a year they think you cheated your matches. If it takes more than three, you're a slow learner."

"That's a lot of time though!" Ochako said. Her fingers were gingerly touching the egg, stroking with care in search of cracks. "I only have a year to get up Mt. Coronet, and you need proof of passage to be even allowed up the side where Spear Pillar is. I have to meet with Riley to make it and everything."

"It's only a lot of time if you don't have to do the badges." Izuku smiled a bit more, popping a cyndaquil out of a pokeball. "I have to go back to Johto for mine. Family reasons and all. So I have to follow that circuit. And you've heard the rumors on Whitney, right?"

Before Mina or Ochako could answer, there was a loud crack. Or it was loud to them. The three jumped and turned, watching the egg wobble and shake. Ochako hopped up, snatching up towels from her bag and moving from foot to foot. Mina started vibrating.

"It's time!" she said cheerfully, leaving Izuku to peer over their heads as a piece of eggshell began to wiggle. Then it popped off with more force than necessary, jetting forward and nearly hitting Izuku in the leg. His cyndaquil let out an irritable puff of smoke. He shushed it as Pinkie (whatever Pinkie was, it wasn't a pokemon from this dimension) floated back again.

Ochako remained where she was, changing positions in a crouch, her arms outstretched like she was preparing to catch a football or a quadruped pokemon.

Another piece of shell broke off, fluid spilling into the grass. The eggshell continued to crumble and slowly, with trembling hands Ochako reached out and picked up the creature inside of it.

The shaymin let out a squeak, soft and imploring. That could only be what it was according to all of Izuku's studying. Healthy green leaves, a pink bud above an ear, soft white underside, and timid, cautious pawing. That was all he needed to see.

"Oh wow…" he breathed.

Ochako nodded, swallowing hard enough he could almost imagine he heard it. "Hi there…" she said, voice soft to deal with the sensitive newborn ears. "I'm Ochako… I'm here for you."

The hedgehog squeaked ones, and began to shake. Ochako snapped to move, grabbing up the creature with ginger hands and taking her softest towel to wipe them clean. The baby sneezed.

"Congratulations! It's non-binary!" cheered Mina, after blinking a few times.

Ochako and Izuku looked at each other and laughed. They'd just seen the birth of a legendary and it didn't necessarily have to mean anything. But it was hard not to be friends after that.

Izuku leaned over once more, watching the shaymin guzzle down berry juice after a steady twenty minutes or so of cleaning. "Do shaymin keep you up late? Like mammalian babies?"

"I don't think so." Ochako adjusted her grip again. "If anything, I'll be more worried they go comatose. My dad did his and he emailed me yesterday saying the real trouble is keeping them awake at night because they use so much sunlight. That's why you feed them berry juice and leaves. THat gives them energy stores. Well that and pollutants. So they should sleep just fine. I just have to adjust to keeping the door locked while they're out of the pokeball so they don't go wandering."

"Mm." Another quiet pause from Izuku. When he wasn't muttering to himself, he did that a lot. "Will you be okay?"

"I think so yeah." She was smiling a little wider than she really needed to but what else would you do when you had to raise a little legendary, even when you knew about it?

Izuku wasn't sure he could do it, himself.

"I'll help you out," he decided before he quite knew what he was doing.

"Eh?" Her face flamed and so did his once his words caught up with him. "Really?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "Why not?"

"I'm helping too!" Mina returned with a basket of food. The other two stared.

"How much did you buy?"

"Enough!" She grinned. "Who's hungry?"

Well… they couldn't say no to that.


End file.
